Today you will learn about Albania, the poorest country in Europe, adjacent to Greece and several countries spun off from Yugoslavia and across the Adriatic from Italy.
.June 15 Depart Los Angeles for Tirana via Istanbul. A 13 hour flight plus time zone changes means you arrive at almost the same time you left--only on the next day. Few U. S. passports on board. The women next to me says her Muslim prayers and two young Saudis attending Claremont schools sit across the aisle. Both airports are new and elegant, Istanbul's with very high-end stores. I meet my traveling companion, Mollie, in Istanbul. This is our fourth trip together. We also did the Stans--see my blog titled JudithandtheStans, Colombia and Venezuela and North Africa.
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| Milingona Hostel |
June 16 The Milingona Hostel sits behind stores on a busy street, behind a locked gate with a noisy dog and up three flights of stairs. but is decorated with cheery murals, some painted by guests. The country of under 4 million is about the size of Maryland and has fine beaches and mountains up to 9,000 feet.
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| Tirana Main Square |
The square features a giant equestrian statute of Skanderberg a 15th century hero who defended Albania from the Ottoman's (whom he originally fought for); unfortunately, he lost.
Albania was the only formally atheist country and tore down most mosques and churches, but a late 18th century mosque on the square survived and was reopened in 1991 complete with women's balcony. Albanian Muslims include a group originating in Iran called Bektashii. The many mosques and churches in view are largely financed from outside the country, and one sees very little activity. In fact, one new church I tried to attend was locked up all day Sunday. Albania is allegedly a Muslim country with some Catholics in the north and some Orthodox Christians in the south, but in two weeks we see only a handful of bushy-bearded men and covered women. What you do see is coffee shops open to the street filled with men of all ages. Some of the young ones are well dressed; some old ones apparently cannot afford even a coffee shop and sit in a park for much of the day. The fact that women don't inhabit coffee shops does not mean they are sequestered in their homes. They are definitely out and about.
Unemployment is high but more than half of all Albanians live outside the country, so remittances are a significant park of the economy. So is crime.
When the dictator was alive and well there were a total of 600 cars in the whole country! Now the traffic is overwhelming, much of it Mercedes, "lifted" from Europe they say. Mercedes are important because miserable roads need rugged cars.
The History Museum has a fine communist mural on the front and begins with archaeology on floor one and ages as it goes up. Second floor features icons in a red-lighted room and then...with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire the history gets interesting but also pathetic. Even though the Treaty of London recognized her independence, Albania was promptly invaded by Italy. A decade later a republic was declared with Zog as president, but a couple of years later he declared himself king. Ten years later Italy returned, then Germany, and then in 1944 partisans came to power, communists, led by French teacher Enver Hoxha who created a People's Republic in 1946. Ties to Yugoslavia were cut, then ties to Warsaw Pact were cut, then ties to China were cut as well. Only with Hoxha's death in 1985 did Albania begin to move out of its isolation. But democracy and raging capitalism led to a complete collapse in the "lottery uprising: of 1997 in which 2,000 died. Today there is a conventional parliamentary government.
Mention must be made of the giant marble pyramid designed as a Hoxha museum. The marble is now gone and it is covered with graffiti but daring souls climb its exterior. Mention must also be made of the many circular bunkers (800,000) which dot the landscape. Designed to withstand the weight of a tank they are too sturdy to easily demolish.
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| Hoxha's Monument to Himself--Desecrated |
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| One of Thousands of Cold War Bunkers |
June 18 I present a lecture for the American Embassy on "Champions for Peace: Women Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize", Afterwards, two young professors from Vitrina University whisk us away to visit their 10 year old campus with 7,000 students. Ten attend lunch with the Rector--all sit silently and don't even eat while Mollie and I chat with the founder who because of politics was not allowed to attend university--so at age 37 he founded this one.The public universities were once politically correct but provided good, free and co-ed education. Now they must compete with many private schools--some no more than a room in a house--others with awesome buildings, but few students.
Tea with three women entrepreneurs--goal is a thriving travel business. To them the big problem is ownership of property. How is it possible to justly redistribute Communist confiscation. NOTE under communists we had education, access to health and enough food. Now--unemployment and poverty.
Albanians claim both Alexander the Great and Mother Teresa as theirs. (So do some other countries.)
Every evening now is spent watching soccer championships beamed from Brazil to every coffee shop, park, bar, and restaurant.
AND this is one country that loves Americans! The U.S. flag is often flown with the Albanian flag.
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| Vitriana Faculty and Rector, Mollie (in red) and Me |
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| Mollie and Mother Teresa |
June 19 Now in Shkodra at hostel called Mi Casa Es Su Casa three hours away by bus. An old city of under 100,000 and flat with lots of bicycles. Scenery is green and lush; agriculture seems to flourish and there are many new, brightly painted houses--old ones are just left to deteriorate not torn down.
At the top of a hill is the bronze age Castle of Rozafa. Rozafa was the wife of one of three brothers whose hard work was undone each night by a spirit who said all would be well once a human had been sacrificed. The three wives brought the brothers lunch each day. The brothers agreed that whichever wife came first would be the sacrifice--but the older two told their wives not to come--and Rozafa agreed to be the sacrifice--walled up into the castle on the condition that a hole be left for her breast so she could feed her baby. The tunnel to the castle still cries and drips her tears.
Male haircuts are short--making them look like what I imagine Mafia thugs look like.
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| Mi Casa Hostel |
June 19 or 20 Depart at 6 a.m. for 45km drive to Komani Lake and a three hour dramatic cruise through a fjord.Fellow travelers: on roof of boat are two Slovak women on bicycles, two Belgians, two Dutch, two Italians and me. Also aboard is a tour group of nine Israelis who let us ride in their bus to Valbona, our destination, 30 miles away. There we walk two miles before finding a guest house on a path near the river where we can stay the night before embarking on a long and strenuous hike over the mountain. Widowed mother and daughter enjoy our family pictures. Shoes off at the door--but TV and washers (no dryers), electricity irregular and snowed in for months in the winter and electricity actually cuts out today--so candles and no hot water. Cat is a mouser who leaves one in hall which my friend Mollie steps on in bare feet. After the soccer match is over a son appears--a soldier slated to get training at Fort Benning, Georgia next month.
"Yo" means "no" but you nod your head affirmatively.
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| Komani Lake |
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| Mountain Meadow |
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| Hostesses--Mountain Home--As We Start Our Hike |
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| Going Down! |
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| Dinner Cooked Over Fire |
June 22 To town to take bus back to Shkodra--and there is one of the famous watch towers described in Edith Durham's High Albania. Clan fighting was so deadly that the men had to stay locked up in a tower without even a door! A woman "virgin" ran everything. Yesterday we saw only 5 hikers--two American college girls, and three men from Kosovo. Today maybe 300 hikers are going up the trail in groups, some singing, others looking determined. The bus takes almost 2 hours to do the first 25 of our 70 km journey because the roads are so narrow, so steep and so rock strewn. We return to Mi Case Es Su...and seek dinner at the nearby A to Z restaurant. It's specials are 1) vegetable soup, 2) salad, and 2) hamburgers.The "specials" are also the only thing they have--in spite of a many-item menu! AND who opens the door for us at Mi Casa? Our host from Miligona Hostel! He is on vacation.
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| Edith Durham left an imprint |
June 23 Data: Albania 30% unemployed. Kosovo 80% Albanian heritage. Lively market--raki sold in water bottles and honey in second hand jars. Clothing mostly shoddy and worn in careless combinations. Women have large bosoms--natural? If not, pads not implants. Lots of Western Unions (for remittances) and car washes apparently an item of stature--even the buses get washed when they stop between cities. Afternoon bus to Tirana Evening walk in the park with 1000's of others--cool.
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| Painted Exteriors Don't Live Up to Their Guide Book Billing |
June 24 Bus to Ohrid in Macedonia one of eight spinoffs from what was once Yugoslavia. Getting in takes awhile--and actually four young men on our bus are turned back. Ohrid is a different and more prosperous affair--perhaps because it is a resort, but there are M and Ms, ice cream sandwiches and Snickers bars. Mollie's hamburger has separate charges for lettuce, for tomato, for onion, as well as for fries. Also, shop keepers have no sense of salesmanship; you have to ask Hit of the week: a folk dance recital in an outdoor amphitheater for 700. Its no longer like the old days when you could travel for a month with no news from home, I now know Michael Intriligator who introduced Mollie and me has died, grandson Asa has had a birthday party, and I was able to send my doctor husband a photo of my suddenly blue toenail.
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| Outdoor Folk Dancing for Locals |
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June 25 Macedonia has been independent sine 1991 and has a population of 2,000,000. It lays claim to Alexander the Great--belongs to UN and Council of Europe but not yet NATO or EU. Lake lined with empty resort hotels. They are apparently stuffed July 15 to August 15--but there are 11 months in the year. Four boys making valiant effort to kayak. Climb hill to Saint Johns (theologian) church built in 1290--mulberries raining down on your head but worth the climb. Then almost straight down to the lake. For the price of a $2 soda we have beach access--no sand. Just step off a platform. Only Mollie and I actually swim--nude girl children seem to be OK, but at night two mosques duel in their call to prayer.
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| 1290--St. Johns |
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| Boys and Girls Together Kindergarten 1908 |
June 27 Up at 5:30 to catch bus to Gjirokastra--6 hours of gorgeous scenery with two rest stops where swarms of swallows are nesting under the eaves--scarecrows in fields are teddy bears! Town is up a steeeeep hill and cobble stone streets--not good for older bus tourists. Hotel is Sopoti--walk up 4 stories to fresh sheets and mini balcony, but few or no other guests. Home of Kadre. Both Mollie and I have read his novels so we walk to see his house (unmarked). No young Albanians seem to have read him although they know he won a Nobel Prize for literature After lunch a walk to third century castle on the top of the hill--a UNESCO site--stage for performances built only a few years ago is in disrepair. UN projects seem to fall quite short, but I guess that money is better spent on unused stages and soccer fields than on armaments.
A U. S. plane shot down in 1957 is proudly displayed. And there is an Ethnographic Museum stuffed with goodies--the tour guide won't let us eavesdrop. Dinner with a well traveled Londoner we have met several times--mint rice balls and spicey sausages--desserts are not part of the protocol. During the dictatorship people could not meet in groups larger than three; tonight the streets are bursting with promenaders moving in large groups--the soccer matches must be over.
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| Home of Nobelist Kadare--Not Honored at Home |
June 28 This is souvenir time--a white felt hat, two small metal boxes with double-headed bird, Christmas ornament and runner and, actually from Albania not China, a wood carving, a canvas to needlepoint, and a wooden box wood-burned by woman owner who tears up when I present her with a Susan B Anthony and tell the story. She says "You are so optimistic! We need that". Her daughter runs the shop across the street and both speak excellent English. We are staying two days in one place and relaxing in garden of Relax Hotel which has a statue of two partisan women out in front--hands chained behind their backs. Police with pistols strapped to their thighs are in evidence. Brazil beats Chile in a shootout--and then the men in the cafes resume watching the passersby--women especially. I finish reading my kindle book "Bury Me Standing" about gypsies who seem to have had it even worse than Albanians--especially if they were in Bulgaria in the mid 1980s.
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| Owner at Work--Cried over her Susan B Anthony Dollar |
June 29 Bus (seating 16) takes us to Berat through prosperous farms, also cherry orchards, hollyhocks, tall and skinny haystacks and sea gulls! Police stop us and inspect everyone's bags--for what? Our stay is at Mangalemi Hotel--our first and only stop at a "real" hotel. City has mosques dating to 13th century and a wee church high on the hill, but the big deal is a complex dating to 400 B.C. It , of course, is on the top of a hill and once had 43 churches and 12 mosques--lots of embroidery for sale as tourists swarm. The promenade here from 7 to 9 tops all the others we've seen. Albanians seem to have long noses which are straight but just a tad off center; men's hair is cropped, but young males were a modified mohawk; women were shapeless one piece flowered dresses. How is that for crass generalizations?
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| Windows on This Hillside Mirror the Valley |
June 29 again?A second day in Berat. Walk to the impressive new university--domes and marble floors and chat with two English teachers who are drinking coffee--no students in evidence since it is exam week. A private school with 3,000 students. Up the street the "Cultural Palace" is putting on a beauty pageant for 10 year old girls today, Sunday. In the afternoon it is bus back to Tirana to our .Milingona Hostel--a visit with a Rector of a private university (100 students). We are told there are now more than 40 private universities and that cheating is rampant and many things are taken care of "under the table". Collect some bananas which are sold at three prices depending on their ripeness. We treat ourselves to dinner and ice cream carefully budgeting to spend all our money before leaving since it is "non-exchangeable".
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| One of the Many New Private Universities--Not a Student in Sight |
June 30 Taxi to airport--hostel was empty but only yesterday there were 40 noisy, drunken member of an athletic club. Arrive in Istanbul at noon--my LA flight had been loading since 11:45. Mollie runs and holds the plane and I jump aboard for some reason enjoying seating in Business class.
TEN WORST THINGS
1 Leg problem on 8 hour mountain hike
2. Mollie steps barefoot on a dead mouse
3. Squat outdoor toilet
4. Bathroom waste enters mountain stream people drink from
5. No shower available after 8 hour hike
6. Buildings left to rot, and trash left on ground
7 Mollie's hamburger in Orhid
8. Unemployed men sitting in cafes all day long
9. Raucous noise outside hotel window
10. Running to catch flight to LA
TEN BEST THINGS
1.Lunch at Vitrana University
2.Taking bets on my age by soldier going to Fort Benning and his family
3. Standing at top of Thetsi Pass
4. Tour of icons with guide in Korca
5. Hotel balconies in Berat and Tirana
6. Berat promenade
7. People eager to help
8. Watching World Cup most nights
9. Shopkeeper who cried over her Susan B Anthony
10. Folk festival in Ohrid
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